(AHUC)  Accessibility.

Allied Health in Urban Communities Icon.  Web Access Symbol (for people with disabilities).  Accessible Design Information.      Printable Summary  


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Accessibility

Making information available:


In 1999, the AHUC grant committee evaluated the accessibility of the information being provided to the public. It was determined that this site, meant to serve persons in the health field, was inaccessible to certain users. The re-design of the AHUC web site includes many features that provide accessible information to all levels of users. Beginning with the W3 Consortium guidelines for accessibility, a framework for navigation and presentation was built. Upgrades were made to the existing AHUC site, which incorporated sensitivity to persons using accessible technologies and text browsers as well as to those with low-vision and colorblindness.

The site was designed for text browser accessibility in the following ways:

Incorporating punctuation at the end of all headers, lists and sentences.

Adding spaces between all links.

Naming links to reflect their destination.

Adding redundant links to the bottom of the site as a summary.

Eliminating frames.

Replacing with text all graphics representing text.

Including alternative text with all graphics representing imagery.

Improving navigation by clearly titling the pages both in the HTML title tag and also at the top of each page.

The site was changed in the following ways to accommodate low-vision and color blind users:

Background images were removed to enhance contrast with text.

Colors were chosen with sensitivity to red-green color blind users.

The enlarged font type was created in contrasting color to the background.

The underlining of links was removed to simplify reading.

Software entitled "Bobby," available at www.cast.org/bobby, was used to test the site's accessibility. Once approved, the Bobby icon appears on the page to verify the accessibility. Though no site can accommodate 100% of persons and technologies, the mission of this re-design was to include features that accommodate more users.

Bobby approved web site. Great Cities, UIC's Metropolatin Commitment. University of Illinois at Chicago logo.

Laura Brubaker, lbruba1@uic.edu